1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:15,000 This is Hacker Public Radio Episode 3757 for Tuesday, the 27th of December 2022. 2 00:00:15,000 --> 00:00:19,400 Today's show is entitled, Career Changes. 3 00:00:19,400 --> 00:00:24,800 It is hosted by some guy on the internet and is about 27 minutes long. 4 00:00:24,800 --> 00:00:27,440 It carries a clean flag. 5 00:00:27,440 --> 00:00:40,840 The summary is, chatting about recent career changes. 6 00:00:40,840 --> 00:00:45,440 Hello and welcome to another episode of Hacker Public Radio, I'm your host, some guy 7 00:00:45,440 --> 00:00:46,440 on the internet. 8 00:00:46,440 --> 00:00:48,760 I just wanted to chat for a little bit. 9 00:00:48,760 --> 00:00:52,360 Give you an update on what I've been up to over the last, I don't know, a couple months 10 00:00:52,360 --> 00:00:53,360 here. 11 00:00:53,360 --> 00:00:57,760 So I left my job and I wanted to get a new job, a better job. 12 00:00:57,760 --> 00:01:02,560 Okay, so before I could get a new job or a better job, I need to update my credentials. 13 00:01:02,560 --> 00:01:07,240 So here in the United States, I have what's called a CDL and I wanted to upgrade that 14 00:01:07,240 --> 00:01:11,600 from a class B to a class A so that way I can make more money. 15 00:01:11,600 --> 00:01:16,080 However, I needed to take courses and things in that nature so that way I could learn 16 00:01:16,080 --> 00:01:20,640 all the different requirements and it took me about four weeks to do that. 17 00:01:20,640 --> 00:01:24,360 I enrolled in a local community college program. 18 00:01:24,360 --> 00:01:30,720 The community college program allows you to do what's called a fast track program and 19 00:01:30,720 --> 00:01:35,760 it costs about $5,000 to do it in my state, which is the state of Virginia. 20 00:01:35,760 --> 00:01:42,040 If you live in the state of Virginia, certain programs will offer a sort of financial aid 21 00:01:42,040 --> 00:01:44,840 called domasile assistance or something like that. 22 00:01:44,840 --> 00:01:50,840 So if you live in your state for more than 12 months and this is just for the state of Virginia, 23 00:01:50,840 --> 00:01:53,360 I can't tell you any other state of province. 24 00:01:53,360 --> 00:01:57,560 So in the state of Virginia, if you live in the state for more than 12 months and you can 25 00:01:57,560 --> 00:02:03,080 prove it, they will offer you domasile assistance for certain courses and I qualified for 26 00:02:03,080 --> 00:02:04,080 that. 27 00:02:04,080 --> 00:02:09,040 So I dropped the price from our program from $5,000 down to $1,500. 28 00:02:09,040 --> 00:02:12,480 So you know, a significant decrease in price. 29 00:02:12,480 --> 00:02:18,160 At the time when I learned about this program, a class was coming up in like the next week. 30 00:02:18,160 --> 00:02:21,200 It was like right around the corner, so I had to act fast. 31 00:02:21,200 --> 00:02:23,120 First thing I did is I went to the website. 32 00:02:23,120 --> 00:02:24,920 I got a student profile. 33 00:02:24,920 --> 00:02:26,240 I got all signed up there. 34 00:02:26,240 --> 00:02:27,240 They sent me information. 35 00:02:27,240 --> 00:02:33,080 It helps me get the other accounts that I needed because you had to sign up for the actual 36 00:02:33,080 --> 00:02:38,240 company that was doing the training as well as the school, which hosted the company that 37 00:02:38,240 --> 00:02:39,600 was doing the training. 38 00:02:39,600 --> 00:02:44,640 It was also like the parking pass and just, you know, get all that school paperwork stuff 39 00:02:44,640 --> 00:02:45,640 out of the way. 40 00:02:45,640 --> 00:02:46,640 I had to do all that. 41 00:02:46,640 --> 00:02:52,720 Then I also had to go to the Virginia DMV website so that way I can grab the CDL manual. 42 00:02:52,720 --> 00:02:58,200 I hadn't read that manual in a year since I first got my CDL and the class B is different 43 00:02:58,200 --> 00:02:59,440 from the class A. 44 00:02:59,440 --> 00:03:04,240 Class B is mostly dump trucks, buses, things of that nature. 45 00:03:04,240 --> 00:03:07,920 You know, just a straight vehicle that is very, very heavy. 46 00:03:07,920 --> 00:03:12,640 Sometimes they can be straight vehicles as well in the class A, depending on the weight and 47 00:03:12,640 --> 00:03:18,040 the material being carried, but you're usually going to find a lot of combination vehicles. 48 00:03:18,040 --> 00:03:23,040 And that's what I went for. 49 00:03:23,040 --> 00:03:24,760 So I got the manual from online. 50 00:03:24,760 --> 00:03:28,560 I started reading up on it and you know, checking in with the school to make sure I had 51 00:03:28,560 --> 00:03:32,400 all the proper paperwork out the way, and especially that parking, because last thing 52 00:03:32,400 --> 00:03:36,240 you want to do is go to class and then have your card towed while you're in class. 53 00:03:36,240 --> 00:03:40,000 And if they don't tell your car on the first time, I think they give you like a $200 ticket 54 00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:42,240 or something like that that you have to pay out there. 55 00:03:42,240 --> 00:03:44,200 So spend your class or something crazy. 56 00:03:44,200 --> 00:03:45,600 So you got to pay it. 57 00:03:45,600 --> 00:03:49,320 So after I make sure I got all that out of the way and I got the book, I started studying 58 00:03:49,320 --> 00:03:50,320 the book. 59 00:03:50,320 --> 00:03:54,080 Then I had to hurry up and go down to the DMV and get the Learners permit, which is called 60 00:03:54,080 --> 00:03:57,560 a CLP commercial Learners permit. 61 00:03:57,560 --> 00:04:02,920 I had to go to the doctor because the course required you to go see their doctors. 62 00:04:02,920 --> 00:04:06,920 You got to go see the doctors, go get a medical examination, you know, basically like a physical 63 00:04:06,920 --> 00:04:10,360 to make sure that you're fit to do the job, as well as a drug test. 64 00:04:10,360 --> 00:04:13,000 Whenever you're getting a CDL, you got to take a drug test. 65 00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:16,520 So I went and got all that out of the way, I forward all the paperwork over to the instructors 66 00:04:16,520 --> 00:04:20,240 from the school or I guess the instructors for the course. 67 00:04:20,240 --> 00:04:24,880 They confirmed on my paperwork was accurate and then I was able to, you know, basically 68 00:04:24,880 --> 00:04:29,640 have a seat in the class, but I still needed to bring a physical copy with me on the 69 00:04:29,640 --> 00:04:30,640 first day of the class. 70 00:04:30,640 --> 00:04:36,520 Now, you have this thing called a medical DLT examination certificate. 71 00:04:36,520 --> 00:04:40,200 You have to keep that with you at all times whenever you're driving commercial. 72 00:04:40,200 --> 00:04:46,080 That is your proof that a doctor verified that you are fit to handle a commercial vehicle 73 00:04:46,080 --> 00:04:48,480 that is required in the United States. 74 00:04:48,480 --> 00:04:50,480 So the class started up with no problem. 75 00:04:50,480 --> 00:04:55,720 The first couple of days we did a bunch of modules where the teachers or professors, whatever 76 00:04:55,720 --> 00:05:00,560 you want to call them, instructors, something, they wanted to make sure that you knew what 77 00:05:00,560 --> 00:05:02,160 you said you knew. 78 00:05:02,160 --> 00:05:07,360 My guess is in the past, they may have had a bunch of people who had others coached them 79 00:05:07,360 --> 00:05:12,040 like just the answers for the tests, but they didn't actually understand why they were 80 00:05:12,040 --> 00:05:14,000 going through all of this. 81 00:05:14,000 --> 00:05:18,840 So they would just come in with a memory of what to select in order to pass a test. 82 00:05:18,840 --> 00:05:21,840 And they wouldn't actually know why they had to know these things. 83 00:05:21,840 --> 00:05:25,360 So the school had their own test that they put you through. 84 00:05:25,360 --> 00:05:32,400 It was something like four modules and each module had about 15 tests within them. 85 00:05:32,400 --> 00:05:38,760 For the most part, each of the modules had the basic information for becoming a commercial 86 00:05:38,760 --> 00:05:41,320 for handling commercial vehicles. 87 00:05:41,320 --> 00:05:43,920 Now it was worth it to be more difficult. 88 00:05:43,920 --> 00:05:50,680 Like you may have, if you look on the Android or the iOS app stores, you'll notice that 89 00:05:50,680 --> 00:05:56,440 there are CDL apps that just basically give you multiple choice questions to help you pass 90 00:05:56,440 --> 00:05:57,440 a test. 91 00:05:57,440 --> 00:06:00,960 I didn't find this out until I got into class with some of the people who were there 92 00:06:00,960 --> 00:06:02,840 who apparently had done this. 93 00:06:02,840 --> 00:06:06,440 I studied the book from the DMV so that I got mine. 94 00:06:06,440 --> 00:06:10,680 They apparently just used the apps or some of the people from the class used the apps. 95 00:06:10,680 --> 00:06:14,920 It really showed in the end who actually did the study and then who didn't because when 96 00:06:14,920 --> 00:06:17,680 the modules came out, people were kind of lost. 97 00:06:17,680 --> 00:06:18,680 So there's about... 98 00:06:18,680 --> 00:06:21,800 I said it was about eight or nine of us in the beginning. 99 00:06:21,800 --> 00:06:23,960 One person, I don't know what happened to them. 100 00:06:23,960 --> 00:06:26,920 They came for like a couple of days and we didn't see them again after that. 101 00:06:26,920 --> 00:06:28,400 I don't know what happened to them. 102 00:06:28,400 --> 00:06:31,040 They just kind of fell off the map later on. 103 00:06:31,040 --> 00:06:35,360 A couple of other people started having difficulty and they couldn't leave the class to go 104 00:06:35,360 --> 00:06:36,800 do the hands-on portion. 105 00:06:36,800 --> 00:06:38,960 They were stuck on the modules for a while. 106 00:06:38,960 --> 00:06:43,960 But for those of us who had completed all the modules and I completed mine, all four 107 00:06:43,960 --> 00:06:47,560 modules each one having about 15 tests within the module. 108 00:06:47,560 --> 00:06:50,160 I completed mine with a grade point average. 109 00:06:50,160 --> 00:06:54,120 I think it was like 97% or something or I guess that's not a grade point average. 110 00:06:54,120 --> 00:06:59,360 But I guess it's just your final score of completion of all four modules. 111 00:06:59,360 --> 00:07:01,200 I got like a 97%. 112 00:07:01,200 --> 00:07:04,760 And then after that, we left and we went out to the truck. 113 00:07:04,760 --> 00:07:06,440 And there were three trucks out there. 114 00:07:06,440 --> 00:07:11,760 Big trucks connected to trailers, tractor trailer or in the manual. 115 00:07:11,760 --> 00:07:16,920 They call them the tractor would be referred to as the power unit and the trailer would 116 00:07:16,920 --> 00:07:20,040 well, that would just be the trailer or the tow unit. 117 00:07:20,040 --> 00:07:21,040 So we went out there. 118 00:07:21,040 --> 00:07:22,040 We got hands-on. 119 00:07:22,040 --> 00:07:23,040 We started looking at everything. 120 00:07:23,040 --> 00:07:27,280 They started, they lift up the hood, start pointing out all the different elements underneath 121 00:07:27,280 --> 00:07:28,440 the engine. 122 00:07:28,440 --> 00:07:30,720 They broke things down by system. 123 00:07:30,720 --> 00:07:32,200 You have your braking system. 124 00:07:32,200 --> 00:07:33,920 You have your suspension system. 125 00:07:33,920 --> 00:07:40,120 You have just all these different parts that you need to understand need to be in order 126 00:07:40,120 --> 00:07:42,720 before you take this vehicle on the road. 127 00:07:42,720 --> 00:07:47,240 This task is to determine whether or not the vehicle is road worthy. 128 00:07:47,240 --> 00:07:52,800 Those key points, parts that they pointed out, if there's failure of certain types within 129 00:07:52,800 --> 00:07:57,560 those different systems that I have not named them on, I just named them a couple of them. 130 00:07:57,560 --> 00:08:02,720 But if there's any sort of a fault in those systems depending on how severe the fault, 131 00:08:02,720 --> 00:08:04,960 it places the vehicle out of service. 132 00:08:04,960 --> 00:08:10,480 You as the operator of the vehicle have the place to vehicle out of service, where issues 133 00:08:10,480 --> 00:08:14,320 have arrived in the past, but still today as well. 134 00:08:14,320 --> 00:08:17,640 I ran into a couple of these issues with my old job as well. 135 00:08:17,640 --> 00:08:23,640 You have your employer or a supervisor from your employer who will say, oh no, that's quite 136 00:08:23,640 --> 00:08:24,640 all right. 137 00:08:24,640 --> 00:08:26,480 You can operate it just like that. 138 00:08:26,480 --> 00:08:29,800 Just make sure you write it up and get it checked out when you get back. 139 00:08:29,800 --> 00:08:32,080 No, that's not how it works. 140 00:08:32,080 --> 00:08:37,680 You as the operator have to evaluate and say rather than not to vehicle is safe to do so. 141 00:08:37,680 --> 00:08:41,360 That's why they put you through all these tests and things beforehand. 142 00:08:41,360 --> 00:08:45,240 If you get stopped by the department of transportation, that's what we have in the United 143 00:08:45,240 --> 00:08:51,440 States, I don't know what it's called elsewhere, but we refer to them as DOT. 144 00:08:51,440 --> 00:08:56,720 If you get stopped by DOT and they inspect your vehicle and find that fault, you're 145 00:08:56,720 --> 00:08:57,720 to blame. 146 00:08:57,720 --> 00:09:00,000 I mean, the company also has some blame in it as well. 147 00:09:00,000 --> 00:09:03,920 They have this thing that they put out, it's basically joint blame. 148 00:09:03,920 --> 00:09:09,480 You can't say my manager made me take the truck and I didn't want to blah, blah, blah, blah. 149 00:09:09,480 --> 00:09:12,960 I mean, you could say it just would not matter you're still going to be held at fault 150 00:09:12,960 --> 00:09:16,000 because you are the operator of the vehicle. 151 00:09:16,000 --> 00:09:20,720 You should have refused to take that vehicle and request it a different one or requested 152 00:09:20,720 --> 00:09:26,240 a repair before taking the vehicle, but there's no excuse once DOT gets ahold of you. 153 00:09:26,240 --> 00:09:32,480 Now, if it's severe enough, it goes on your record and I mean, the more bad things that 154 00:09:32,480 --> 00:09:37,960 go on your commercial driver's license record, it makes it difficult for you to get hired 155 00:09:37,960 --> 00:09:40,200 at another job later on down the line. 156 00:09:40,200 --> 00:09:44,400 So CDL positions are open all throughout the United States of America. 157 00:09:44,400 --> 00:09:49,640 You can get a job anywhere with the CDL, however, if you have things like speeding tickets, 158 00:09:49,640 --> 00:09:55,280 DUIs, reckless driving or those DOT infractions, yeah, you're going to have a hard time 159 00:09:55,280 --> 00:09:58,880 getting a job because it's not the company that is on the hire. 160 00:09:58,880 --> 00:10:03,960 It's the insurance company behind the company that wants to employ you. 161 00:10:03,960 --> 00:10:08,960 If the insurance company says that we're not going to ensure your vehicles, if you hire 162 00:10:08,960 --> 00:10:13,800 that man, then you know, you're just out of luck, maybe you can get hired at a different 163 00:10:13,800 --> 00:10:17,920 position, but you're not going to get hired as an operator with your CDL. 164 00:10:17,920 --> 00:10:22,080 So while going through the course, you know, studying all the different elements on the truck 165 00:10:22,080 --> 00:10:26,560 understanding what needs to be where, because there's all these small things like what 166 00:10:26,560 --> 00:10:32,920 to slack adjusters and to push rod, you can't have more than one inch of play in your 167 00:10:32,920 --> 00:10:38,040 slack adjuster with the brakes on, and there's like what the leaf springs on the suspension 168 00:10:38,040 --> 00:10:39,040 system. 169 00:10:39,040 --> 00:10:44,520 They're key words you have to say, like, whenever you're talking to the examiner from 170 00:10:44,520 --> 00:10:50,960 the Department of Motor Vehicles, what I refer to as the DMV from here on, that examiner 171 00:10:50,960 --> 00:10:55,360 is the person who certifies whether or not you're qualified to get a CDL. 172 00:10:55,360 --> 00:11:00,440 So you go with the instructors from your course to learn everything and once you're up 173 00:11:00,440 --> 00:11:05,840 to par, they take you over to the DMV, where you will then meet up with, they have several 174 00:11:05,840 --> 00:11:07,240 examiners there. 175 00:11:07,240 --> 00:11:09,600 You schedule it all in advance. 176 00:11:09,600 --> 00:11:14,560 They have your name, your driving record, everything pulled up ahead of time, and they 177 00:11:14,560 --> 00:11:16,480 take you out there with the vehicle. 178 00:11:16,480 --> 00:11:19,080 The examiner will listen to you. 179 00:11:19,080 --> 00:11:24,880 They will not give you any pointers, they will not tell you whether or not you missed anything, 180 00:11:24,880 --> 00:11:26,560 or at least they don't have to. 181 00:11:26,560 --> 00:11:32,160 Some examiners will, if they say you're trying and you're pretty good, you actually 182 00:11:32,160 --> 00:11:38,560 know your stuff, but you missed one thing, sometimes they'll say something like more detail. 183 00:11:38,560 --> 00:11:43,000 Nothing more, you'll get to a certain point where, like, say you're talking about the radiator 184 00:11:43,000 --> 00:11:48,680 or the radiator reservoir, and you can just move past it a little too quickly without 185 00:11:48,680 --> 00:11:50,480 going through all the steps. 186 00:11:50,480 --> 00:11:51,640 Here's an example. 187 00:11:51,640 --> 00:11:54,960 So the radiator reservoir, let's start there. 188 00:11:54,960 --> 00:11:59,800 So you point out the radiator reservoir, you say things like, it's properly mounted and secure, 189 00:11:59,800 --> 00:12:05,400 it's not broke, bent or cracked, I see no leaks, the radiator cap is on tight, and then 190 00:12:05,400 --> 00:12:10,160 if you were to move on from there without giving the rest of the information, they 191 00:12:10,160 --> 00:12:12,040 could say more detail. 192 00:12:12,040 --> 00:12:16,560 Now what that would mean is, you probably missed a part where you said, filled to the appropriate 193 00:12:16,560 --> 00:12:21,040 level, because it is the radiator reservoir right after you filled to the appropriate 194 00:12:21,040 --> 00:12:22,040 level. 195 00:12:22,040 --> 00:12:26,520 If it's empty, that's your reservoir to your radiator, you want to make sure it's at the 196 00:12:26,520 --> 00:12:27,520 proper level. 197 00:12:27,520 --> 00:12:32,720 So you know, it's small stuff like that that they can do for you, but a lot of them don't. 198 00:12:32,720 --> 00:12:35,920 They won't say anything, they would just let you move right on and just breeze through 199 00:12:35,920 --> 00:12:40,800 the test and at the end, they'll grade you, and that's the pre-trip test. 200 00:12:40,800 --> 00:12:47,560 There's a pre-trip inspection, a trip inspection, and then a post-trip inspection that must 201 00:12:47,560 --> 00:12:49,000 be done to the vehicle. 202 00:12:49,000 --> 00:12:53,760 Your pre-trip is just like it says before you take that vehicle from the lot or wherever 203 00:12:53,760 --> 00:12:57,400 you are and take it out on road, you need to make sure it's roadworthy. 204 00:12:57,400 --> 00:13:03,160 During trip inspections happened within the first 50 miles of your trip, so as soon as 205 00:13:03,160 --> 00:13:06,760 you get out, you go down a road a little bit, then you know, you got to pull over and 206 00:13:06,760 --> 00:13:10,080 inspect your vehicle as well as your cargo. 207 00:13:10,080 --> 00:13:14,040 You need to make sure that your cargo is, you know, tight and secure all the different 208 00:13:14,040 --> 00:13:18,680 angles that comes with it, because sometimes issues happen shortly after you leave, you 209 00:13:18,680 --> 00:13:21,000 want to catch them as soon as possible. 210 00:13:21,000 --> 00:13:24,360 When you're 50 miles away from, you know, determine all the way wherever, wherever you 211 00:13:24,360 --> 00:13:26,920 left from, then get to you a lot easier. 212 00:13:26,920 --> 00:13:31,440 And then there are multiple in-trip inspections that you do because they're requirements 213 00:13:31,440 --> 00:13:36,640 that the driver has to do, like, for instance, after at first 50 miles, then you have 214 00:13:36,640 --> 00:13:40,840 to do multiple inspections throughout your trip, depending on how long your trip is. 215 00:13:40,840 --> 00:13:45,960 If you're doing like OTR, which stands for over the road or long haul, those are two ways 216 00:13:45,960 --> 00:13:48,160 that people explain it. 217 00:13:48,160 --> 00:13:55,120 You have to stop every three hours or it could be every three hours or every 150 miles 218 00:13:55,120 --> 00:13:56,920 depending on which comes first. 219 00:13:56,920 --> 00:13:59,880 Pull over and inspect your vehicle and inspect your cargo. 220 00:13:59,880 --> 00:14:03,960 You got to go through all the points, make sure everything's functioning in up the par, stretch 221 00:14:03,960 --> 00:14:07,080 your legs while you're doing so, and then, you know, keep going. 222 00:14:07,080 --> 00:14:10,680 If you notice there's a problem, you contact your dispatcher, you let them know the problem 223 00:14:10,680 --> 00:14:16,280 you try to get it fixed, but all of this is done because sometimes, you know, issues happen 224 00:14:16,280 --> 00:14:21,040 and you want to catch it before it happens on the road. 225 00:14:21,040 --> 00:14:26,360 When it happens on the road, it turns into a nightmare, much, much easier to take care of 226 00:14:26,360 --> 00:14:29,400 when you're parked safely on the side of the road. 227 00:14:29,400 --> 00:14:32,480 But these are all things that they teach you in the course. 228 00:14:32,480 --> 00:14:37,880 I mean, you can actually learn this from the book as well, but the course actually stresses 229 00:14:37,880 --> 00:14:41,560 a lot of these and gives you the backstory behind them. 230 00:14:41,560 --> 00:14:44,520 It's one thing for a guy to tell you, hey, make sure you shut your door. 231 00:14:44,520 --> 00:14:48,840 That's another thing that happens when you go to the DMV to get your arm. 232 00:14:48,840 --> 00:14:53,640 You test on, I don't know which examiner, like if any of you want to go get your CDL later 233 00:14:53,640 --> 00:14:58,440 on, it's not telling which examiner you'll come across one of the nicer ones or one 234 00:14:58,440 --> 00:15:03,480 of the more strict ones, but they are fail you if you get out of that vehicle and do not 235 00:15:03,480 --> 00:15:04,480 shut your door. 236 00:15:04,480 --> 00:15:07,840 That's one of the big ones out there too. 237 00:15:07,840 --> 00:15:12,160 There's a specific way you have to enter the vehicle and exit the vehicle, you have to 238 00:15:12,160 --> 00:15:17,680 be facing the vehicle and maintain three points of contact while getting into and exiting 239 00:15:17,680 --> 00:15:18,680 the vehicle. 240 00:15:18,680 --> 00:15:25,320 So that's boarding and alighting the three-point contact rule, then there's a door and 241 00:15:25,320 --> 00:15:30,880 see if nobody is playing to you how serious the door thing is or whatever you're like, 242 00:15:30,880 --> 00:15:37,160 how could I fail or lose points or anything, how can I be docked for not shutting the door? 243 00:15:37,160 --> 00:15:39,040 What's the worst that could happen? 244 00:15:39,040 --> 00:15:43,720 There have been incidents, depending on what state you're in, where high-guests, high-wind gusts 245 00:15:43,720 --> 00:15:49,480 take the door, like when you open the door and the mirror stands about a foot or more from 246 00:15:49,480 --> 00:15:54,680 the door and the door has blown to where it hyper-extended and the mirror went through 247 00:15:54,680 --> 00:15:56,000 the windshield. 248 00:15:56,000 --> 00:16:01,360 Now obviously, if the mirror breaks your windshield, that vehicle is now not a service. 249 00:16:01,360 --> 00:16:07,440 And then it's also the usual if vehicles are passing close by and one of them smacks 250 00:16:07,440 --> 00:16:12,320 your door off where you'd no longer have a driver door so you obviously are out of service 251 00:16:12,320 --> 00:16:13,320 there too. 252 00:16:13,320 --> 00:16:19,560 So there's a lot of backstory and I just elaboration, elaborating on the issues so that 253 00:16:19,560 --> 00:16:23,520 what you understand it, where as the book will just sort of give you some bullet points saying 254 00:16:23,520 --> 00:16:28,360 you must do this, you must do that, you must do it with no elaborating. 255 00:16:28,360 --> 00:16:33,880 One of the things that I really liked from the class, the instructors are, they have years 256 00:16:33,880 --> 00:16:40,120 of experience driving around a country and they can give you a lot of the places where 257 00:16:40,120 --> 00:16:45,520 they went wrong, you know, where they got overconfident and made mistakes. 258 00:16:45,520 --> 00:16:49,120 Luckily the mistakes didn't cost them too much, they may have gotten a find or something 259 00:16:49,120 --> 00:16:53,080 like that but it didn't actually like ruin their career or anything otherwise they 260 00:16:53,080 --> 00:16:58,160 wouldn't become instructors so you know, you get all that experience when you go to 261 00:16:58,160 --> 00:17:03,080 class and all of that kind of helps submit your understanding, you remember to shut 262 00:17:03,080 --> 00:17:08,520 that door versus if you just read it in the book, shut the door, you could possibly forget 263 00:17:08,520 --> 00:17:09,520 that. 264 00:17:09,520 --> 00:17:13,880 But once you hear all the backstory it's like, oh yeah, I better make sure I don't 265 00:17:13,880 --> 00:17:15,520 ever let that happen to me. 266 00:17:15,520 --> 00:17:19,160 Yes, I know I'm a little bit all over the place but I'm just recording because I got 267 00:17:19,160 --> 00:17:23,400 a little bit of time right now and I went and ran to Mary and Erin's and listen to 268 00:17:23,400 --> 00:17:27,400 some get caught up on my podcast and everything and I just want to talk and get a show 269 00:17:27,400 --> 00:17:28,400 out. 270 00:17:28,400 --> 00:17:32,480 So yeah, once you learn how to pre-trip your vehicle and expect all the different components 271 00:17:32,480 --> 00:17:36,760 and systems and you know, you can name them all, tell what the flaws are, what to look 272 00:17:36,760 --> 00:17:37,760 out for, etc. 273 00:17:37,760 --> 00:17:40,400 The you learn things like coupling the vehicles. 274 00:17:40,400 --> 00:17:45,400 They're multiple different coupling types, your book will give you the different coupling 275 00:17:45,400 --> 00:17:47,720 types of today. 276 00:17:47,720 --> 00:17:51,840 There's like the panel hook, there's the fifth wheel and I forgot what the other one 277 00:17:51,840 --> 00:17:52,840 is. 278 00:17:52,840 --> 00:17:56,840 It's some sort of other one that I don't expect to encounter. 279 00:17:56,840 --> 00:18:00,520 Most of you, because I'll be dealing with, we'll have a fifth wheel unless I was to do 280 00:18:00,520 --> 00:18:05,040 like doubles and triples, which I may actually end up doing doubles and triples. 281 00:18:05,040 --> 00:18:09,920 I'm not sure yet, but we'll see, you know, it all depends on where the money is and that's 282 00:18:09,920 --> 00:18:14,680 kind of what I want right now, but I also want to stay away from over the road right now 283 00:18:14,680 --> 00:18:19,520 because my daughter's still young, I don't want to be gone, her entire childhood, just 284 00:18:19,520 --> 00:18:23,480 to say, you know, sure I got to make money, but I also want to be a part of her life. 285 00:18:23,480 --> 00:18:26,600 But yeah, anyway, yeah, I'm getting all over the place again. 286 00:18:26,600 --> 00:18:32,600 So yeah, you learned about your coupling system, how the coupling system works, how to 287 00:18:32,600 --> 00:18:37,160 you know, connect vehicles and what to look out for in the way of flaws. 288 00:18:37,160 --> 00:18:42,360 We also learned about there's sort of like a brotherhood between truckers, along with that 289 00:18:42,360 --> 00:18:45,800 brotherhood, you know, truckers will look out for each other. 290 00:18:45,800 --> 00:18:50,600 There's a few in the community, just like every other community where you're going to find 291 00:18:50,600 --> 00:18:52,280 bad actors, right? 292 00:18:52,280 --> 00:18:59,080 We've seen videos of truckers at, you know, like a flying J, or loves or whatever, these 293 00:18:59,080 --> 00:19:04,280 different truck stops where I guess one guy had a beef with another guy goes he gets out of 294 00:19:04,280 --> 00:19:07,800 his truck in a middle night and does something to the other guy's truck, you don't really 295 00:19:07,800 --> 00:19:12,760 see what it is, but later on it turns out he disconnects the guy's trailer, he pulled a 296 00:19:12,760 --> 00:19:15,080 release arm on the trailer. 297 00:19:15,080 --> 00:19:20,520 So that decouples his truck from his trailer, you know, that's a terrible thing to have 298 00:19:20,520 --> 00:19:26,600 happened if you have a fully loaded trailer and you pull away and it's not couple, 299 00:19:26,600 --> 00:19:31,400 your trailer is going to drop to the ground and it's fully loaded, you cannot get that back up. 300 00:19:31,400 --> 00:19:36,840 Now you have to call a record service to come out and basically lift your trailer up. 301 00:19:36,840 --> 00:19:40,200 Not the mention is going to damage the goods you're carrying, it's going to damage the 302 00:19:40,200 --> 00:19:45,400 trailer, you know, it's, it's a real jerk move to do, but there's all these little small 303 00:19:45,400 --> 00:19:49,000 things like that that can happen, you something that you may not even notice, you know, 304 00:19:49,000 --> 00:19:52,760 that's why you have to constantly inspect your vehicle, you have to know all of these, 305 00:19:52,760 --> 00:19:58,280 you know, little elements, and somebody does that to you and you call it, you know how to 306 00:19:58,280 --> 00:20:03,640 proceed from there, I mean sure, you probably don't want to go getting into a knock down drag out 307 00:20:03,640 --> 00:20:07,560 fight, but other truckers, but at the same time you also don't want to pull away and look like 308 00:20:07,560 --> 00:20:12,200 a jerk out there with your trailer lying on the ground and have to explain why all the goods 309 00:20:12,200 --> 00:20:16,440 in it are damaged. Not to mention there's a, there's a lot of fraud and stuff that we learned 310 00:20:16,440 --> 00:20:23,160 about as well, especially surrounding Amazon right now. There's these guys going around like 311 00:20:23,160 --> 00:20:28,760 this, like these shady broker services, and you're going to run into them if you decide to go 312 00:20:29,400 --> 00:20:34,600 what they call it, if you do your own authority, or basically you become an owner operator, 313 00:20:34,600 --> 00:20:39,400 and you run your own trucking business, it could be with a single truck or just you own your friends, 314 00:20:39,400 --> 00:20:45,000 whatever, but it is your entrepreneur with a truck, and you're doing business with the truck. 315 00:20:45,000 --> 00:20:50,680 If you run into one of these broker services, they all broker a load from Amazon, 316 00:20:50,680 --> 00:20:56,600 give you the load, you know, it'll seem all up to date and legit, there'll be some small things about 317 00:20:56,600 --> 00:21:01,640 it, like say for instance, they broker that load about, it's, it's got a long delivery time on it 318 00:21:01,640 --> 00:21:05,880 for like two, let I'm just going to throw out numbers here, so don't, you know, it'll be like two 319 00:21:05,880 --> 00:21:10,680 weeks before it has to make it from point eight to point B. By the time you get the load to you, 320 00:21:10,680 --> 00:21:15,720 you'll notice that okay now, you, you've got like a week to get this load delivered, but they've 321 00:21:15,720 --> 00:21:22,120 had it just sitting on it for an entire week, you know, Amazon loads move pretty quickly and most 322 00:21:22,120 --> 00:21:26,520 of the people go directly to Amazon, but even if they don't, you know, they go pretty quickly, 323 00:21:26,520 --> 00:21:30,120 because, you know, they pay well, and especially if you're just new to trucking whatever you can 324 00:21:30,120 --> 00:21:35,720 get in, get out pretty easy, Amazon isn't going to hire you or work with you if you're new, 325 00:21:35,720 --> 00:21:40,360 you, I think they have like their own rating system or whatever, if you're going to do 326 00:21:40,360 --> 00:21:44,600 trucking with Amazon, same thing with other companies, I think Walmart's like that as well, 327 00:21:44,600 --> 00:21:50,680 if you're going to move goods for Walmart, you have to, you have to have X amount of months of experience 328 00:21:50,680 --> 00:21:55,560 and, you know, they get all their different requirements for you, but they're back to the story. 329 00:21:55,560 --> 00:22:01,400 So what their shady broker will do is they'll then give you that load, you'll head out down a road, 330 00:22:01,400 --> 00:22:06,360 they will have a tracker on that load, because they have a broker, they have to be able to 331 00:22:06,360 --> 00:22:11,480 not have to, but they will, most people track the load right, they'll send that tracking information 332 00:22:11,480 --> 00:22:16,120 to some shady individuals who will, you know, come up on, you had a truck stop somewhere, 333 00:22:16,120 --> 00:22:21,160 whenever you go to stop for the night, they will then tell you that they're there to recover the load, 334 00:22:21,160 --> 00:22:25,000 they'll have some sort of dodgy paperwork or something like that telling you hey, yeah, 335 00:22:25,000 --> 00:22:30,120 we're from the broker or we're from whoever and we're coming to, you know, recover the load. 336 00:22:30,120 --> 00:22:35,320 If you give that load to them, you are on the hook for the entire load, so that could be like 337 00:22:35,320 --> 00:22:43,160 $200,000, $300,000 worth of products, you know, TVs, laptops, whatever, inside that load, 338 00:22:43,160 --> 00:22:47,720 if you hand that load over to them, you just bought it. That's right, all of it, that's 339 00:22:47,720 --> 00:22:51,000 you are on the hook for that. You are insurance, so you're going to go through the roof. 340 00:22:52,040 --> 00:22:56,120 It is going to be a bad day for you. This game has been going on for a little while now, 341 00:22:56,120 --> 00:23:00,280 Amazon is beginning a lot of calls about it because apparently, you know, 342 00:23:00,280 --> 00:23:05,800 especially when you're new to the business, you don't know your broker or whoever sends some guys 343 00:23:05,800 --> 00:23:10,200 to come recover the load from you. You think there's a problem, your new, you just hand the load over 344 00:23:10,200 --> 00:23:14,040 because they look like they got the paperwork or whatever before you know what your broker is going. 345 00:23:14,040 --> 00:23:17,400 I didn't send them. I didn't. I don't know who those guys are. I don't know anything about that. 346 00:23:17,400 --> 00:23:22,760 And now you're on the hook for that load. You sign the papers, taking it away from point A, 347 00:23:22,760 --> 00:23:28,760 and now when you get the point B, you don't have the load, so you have to pay for. So yeah, 348 00:23:28,760 --> 00:23:34,760 it's, it's a lot of shady things going on out there. And we were able to learn about a lot of this, 349 00:23:34,760 --> 00:23:39,240 you know, these guys being truckers staying up the, up the speed on a lot of this stuff. They're 350 00:23:39,240 --> 00:23:44,600 just handing it down to us, making sure we're aware. You're going into a new career, 351 00:23:44,600 --> 00:23:50,920 look out for XYZ, keep your eyes moving all of that stuff, you know. And I appreciate it every 352 00:23:50,920 --> 00:23:56,120 bit of it. I learned a lot. I'm not going to be doing OTR. I'm just going to work for a company 353 00:23:56,120 --> 00:24:02,120 and, you know, try to do local. The thing I learned about local is local is more hands on. 354 00:24:02,120 --> 00:24:05,880 You're going to be in and out of the truck a lot, moving freight. They call it touching freight. 355 00:24:05,880 --> 00:24:09,800 Where you, you know, say, for instance, you're delivering beer or something. You got to get out, 356 00:24:09,800 --> 00:24:16,040 get the pallet, move it into the stores. You may even have to set up a display for the product. 357 00:24:16,040 --> 00:24:19,880 Put the signs on it and all that stuff. Then, you know, you bring all your equipment back 358 00:24:19,880 --> 00:24:24,680 to the truck and then you load up. And you head out, go to the next location over and over again. 359 00:24:24,680 --> 00:24:29,400 That's the local side of it. Now, you may have heard that the HVAC came on just now. So I had 360 00:24:29,400 --> 00:24:33,560 to pause recording real quick so I didn't get too noisy. I'm going to go ahead and wrap it up now. 361 00:24:33,560 --> 00:24:39,480 Now, I am going to go back by the school. I talked to the director of the course. And I told 362 00:24:39,480 --> 00:24:46,280 him what I wanted to do as far as making flashcards for a new students coming in to, you know, 363 00:24:46,280 --> 00:24:50,200 learn a little bit better because they asked some nice resources. Don't get me wrong. But there 364 00:24:50,200 --> 00:24:55,480 are some improvements. I think I could make from a student's perspective. And I wanted to, 365 00:24:55,480 --> 00:25:01,160 you know, offer that opportunity. I think I'm going to license it all as like CC0 or something like 366 00:25:01,160 --> 00:25:05,800 that. And then that way I can share it freely with them. And for with anyone, then it can just 367 00:25:05,800 --> 00:25:11,400 do whatever with it. And I'll probably even make a show out of it once I'm done who knows or just 368 00:25:11,400 --> 00:25:15,880 upload it and tell you about it. And you can grab it if you want. But I'm going to go there. 369 00:25:15,880 --> 00:25:22,360 I'm going to take my DSLR camera, take a bunch of photos. And then just basically gray scale the 370 00:25:22,360 --> 00:25:26,920 stuff you shouldn't be looking at at the moment in the photo and do like maybe a green high 371 00:25:26,920 --> 00:25:33,400 lighter, whatever on the stuff you should be focusing on in photo and give some sort of text information 372 00:25:33,400 --> 00:25:37,880 that says with that the item is or what you're supposed to be looking out for. So that 373 00:25:37,880 --> 00:25:44,120 what it work like flashcards, but they'll be, you know, GPGs or whatever. But that's my plan. I already 374 00:25:44,120 --> 00:25:49,240 talked to the director. He gave me the OK on it. I was supposed to go by there today, but I ran into 375 00:25:49,240 --> 00:25:54,920 a number of the things that just like I had to go about a DMV again that took up a ton of time. 376 00:25:54,920 --> 00:25:59,480 And I just couldn't get it down again today. So I plan to try to get up there tomorrow and get 377 00:25:59,480 --> 00:26:05,400 that done. I'm charging my camera, my LED light and everything today to make sure that I, you know, 378 00:26:05,400 --> 00:26:10,760 have everything ready to go when I'm ready to go up there. And yeah, I'll start shooting first 379 00:26:10,760 --> 00:26:16,680 thing in the morning and sit down while I'm in class up there while the new students are studying 380 00:26:16,680 --> 00:26:21,080 and doing anything. I'll just sit down in my laptop, start to edit, make sure I got all the shots. 381 00:26:21,080 --> 00:26:26,440 I need before I actually leave that area because the school is about 45 minutes away. And that's 382 00:26:26,440 --> 00:26:31,000 what's good traffic. You know what I mean? So I don't want to leave and go, oh man, I should have 383 00:26:31,000 --> 00:26:36,520 got a shot of this. You know, I'll do it all while I'm up there or as much as I can until I feel confident 384 00:26:36,520 --> 00:26:41,240 and leave. But that's all I have for you today, guys. Just some guy on internet writing about 385 00:26:41,240 --> 00:26:49,240 trucking and truck related stuff. I'll be preparing my kit to record on the road. So I downloaded 386 00:26:49,240 --> 00:26:55,960 no noise torch. I can't remember who did a show on that recently. Thank you for the show. By the way, 387 00:26:55,960 --> 00:27:01,800 I used it. I installed it. I follow that was Linux for everyone video on installation and 388 00:27:01,800 --> 00:27:06,840 get it up and running with Linux Mint. Works great. I think it's going to work better for me 389 00:27:06,840 --> 00:27:11,560 if I'm doing like video calls and stuff that nature right can't edit because with the editing 390 00:27:11,560 --> 00:27:17,800 for me to get a noise profile on the noise that I want to reduce, you need a little bit more 391 00:27:17,800 --> 00:27:24,520 of that noise in the audio recording and what noise torch does is it eliminates a tremendous amount 392 00:27:24,520 --> 00:27:31,080 of it. So you get very little to build your noise profile with. So yeah, you know, it's still 393 00:27:31,080 --> 00:27:35,560 very good to have though. Especially if I didn't have much time to do any editing at all, 394 00:27:35,560 --> 00:27:40,120 I just need to just get the recording out the door. Yeah, that's totally what I'm going to be using. 395 00:27:40,120 --> 00:27:44,360 Thank you guys for listening. I'll catch you guys in the next episode. I'm some guy on internet 396 00:27:44,360 --> 00:27:45,640 and this is HPR. 397 00:27:48,440 --> 00:27:53,400 You have been listening to Hacker Public Radio as Hacker Public Radio does work. 398 00:27:53,400 --> 00:27:58,840 Today's show was contributed by a HPR this night like yourself. If you ever thought of 399 00:27:58,840 --> 00:28:04,920 recording podcast, click on our contributally to find out how easy it means. 400 00:28:04,920 --> 00:28:10,520 Hosting PreHBR has been kindly provided by an onsthost.com, 401 00:28:10,520 --> 00:28:15,240 the internet archive and our Sync.net. On this otherwise stages, 402 00:28:15,240 --> 00:28:18,600 today's show is released on our Creative Commons, 403 00:28:18,600 --> 00:28:31,960 attribution for going to international license.